


Five Times Micah Got Into Trouble At School

by Nope



Series: Five Times Micah [7]
Category: Heroes (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-09
Updated: 2007-12-09
Packaged: 2018-10-25 02:16:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10754670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nope/pseuds/Nope
Summary: Exactly what it says on the tin.





	Five Times Micah Got Into Trouble At School

**1\. STOP**  
  
The first time Micah uses his abilities -- the first time he really remembers using them, anyway -- he is five years old and Ryan Kettering is trying to run him over with a remote controlled truck because Ryan, six months younger and an annoying four inches taller, is an ass. There's probably a real, deep-rooted psychological reason or something that therapists would use to explain his behaviour, but even when he's old enough to appreciate this Micah is still pretty sure it would boil down to: the kid was an ass. (His mom says he's not supposed to call people 'ass' and definitely not the whole word dad uses all the time, but Micah reckons that sometimes you just have to because no other word will fit and it's okay if you only do it in the privacy of your own head, because no one can actually read minds, even if his parents do somehow always know when he's trying to sneak an extra comic into the shopping.)  
  
Ryan bumps the truck into Micah's leg again, giggling.  
  
"Quit it," Micah snaps. Ryan does, for about three seconds. "Stop it!"  
  
"I'm not touching you!" Ryan waves the remote at the truck in an accusatory sort of way, and Micah almost expects him to say 'talk to the truck' but apparently Ryan has never watched day time TV, because he doesn't. He does, however, drive the truck into Micah again.  
  
Stop, Micah says, except it's not just like saying, it's more like there being lots of toggle switches in his head and he reached out and flicked one down, and he feels something expanding, touching without fingers.  
  
"Stop," Micah says, and the truck does.  
  
Ryan keeps grinning for a moment but it quickly becomes a pout and a furrowed brow when the controls do nothing, no matter how hard he presses, punches, or hits them. "How'd you do that?"  
  
"I didn't do anything." Micah tries to go back to his colouring, but it's not to be.  
  
"Miss!" Ryan screeches. "Miss! Micah broke the truck!"  
  
"I did not!" Micah says hotly. "He was hitting me with it!"  
  
"Was not!"  
  
"Was too!"  
  
"You broke it!"  
  
"You broke it!"  
  
"BOYS!"  
  
Micah fumed silently as his crayons were taken away and Ryan grouched when his truck was taken away, and they both moaned when they were sent to stand in the corner.  
  
Such an ass.  
  
  
  
  
**2\. CHEAT**  
  
There's a name for people who think the television is talking to them, but Micah's pretty sure he's not crazy. He's read things, he knows the scientific method -- observe the data, make a hypothesis, test the hypothesis against more data, rinse and repeat -- and he's practiced and he's pretty sure he's not crazy. (Or he's really schizoid and totally excellent at self-delusion.) Plus he reads a lot of comics and he knows what technopathy is, which is what he has. What he can do.  
  
And, yeah, he wasn't paying attention when they watched the video, and, yes, the teacher knew he hadn't been -- what with the whole taking his calculator away -- and so, yes, he had asked the television the answers to the quiz that followed, but he didn't see why he was being called a cheater just because they were all right. It's not like the teacher had said he couldn't ask the television the answers. And he remembered them all -- although, admittedly none of the bits that the questions hadn't been about.  
  
"You just happened to be listening at the bits I was going to test on?"  
  
"Yes?" Micah tries.  
  
"You don't actually expect me to believe that?"  
  
"I wasn't cheating!"  
  
Protestations were to no avail, alas, but on the upside the teacher made the mistake of phoning his mom to talk about it, and Niki was even more certain Micah would never cheat than Micah was.  
  
  
  
  
**3\. BULLY**  
  
Frank plastered his secret -- his other secret, Micah means, the 'mother is a killer' one -- all over the desktop of every screen in the room. (And there's no way he's going to try and explain his mom to his classmates.) And then there had been the punching, and the cut head, but Frank had forgotten Micah had been on the soccer team and not only did he have a pretty nasty kick but he was fast for his size, which took care of the running away bit. The junkyard hadn't exactly been a part of his plan, which would have required him to actually have a plan, but it, and his secret, took care of the rest. Frank crapped his pants, basically.  
  
"You get in a fight at school today?" D. L. asked. (Stupid cut, giving it away.)  
  
"It was nothing," Micah assured him. "Just some jerks, that's all."  
  
"Just want to know if you won, that's all."  
  
Micah took his sandwich and grinned. "Yeah, I won."  
  
Except it turned out that Frank, crapped pants and all, had hightailed it all the way home where he and his sidekick, both hysterical, somehow managed to convince Frank's dad that Micah was some kind of, well, antichrist, basically. Which Micah thought was pretty unfair to his dad, who had never done anything that bad, although it was, perhaps, if he was being very uncharitable, not that bad a description of Jessica.  
  
Frank's dad had gone to the principal, and Micah and D.L. had been made to come in, and it could have gone really bad, because his parents had an odd, if endearing, habit of threatening physical violence against the heads of schools, but it turned out the stupid cut wasn't so stupid after all, because it added evidence to Micah's story. A true story, mostly, except for the secrets he left out.  
  
They still made him go and see the guidance counsellor every day for ages. That ending had been one of the few good things to come out of Linderman kidnapping him a while afterwards.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
**4\. DAD**  
  
Micah doesn't remember what set him off. He has a perfectly clear memory of the guy's mouth moving but he can't seem to match it to words. Somewhere along the line the audio track got overwritten with white noise. He remembers Monica's hand on his shoulder, her fingers digging in. He remembers feeling cold and hot, all at once. He doesn't remember what he was yelling, but he remembers the brittle, wet feel of the guy's nose breaking under his fist, the soft resistance of stomach under his foot, the stark contrast between blood and vomit and the previously pristine light grey linoleum.  
  
He remembers biting someone. Maybe himself. Sweat salt and copper blood. He remembers it was really important to get back to the guy and keep hitting him, although he doesn't quite remember why, or whose hands and arms pulled him back, who suffered his kicking and wild swings to hold him back. He doesn't remember the guy getting back, although he does remember him being up, clutching at his nose, blood dots on the green and white striped T-shirt that look just like milkshake splashes. Micah clearly remembers his mother, one time, saying 'mucky pup' when he splashed himself with his own milkshake, but not when, or where, or what flavour milkshake it was.  
  
The guy's mouth keeps moving, even under the hand, behind the blood. Micah doesn't remember a word said to him, just how they felt like ice-cold needles in his stomach and pressure in his head and shadows at the edge of his vision and everything red. He doesn't remember what the guy said, but he remembers Monica pushing him back and saying "his parents were heroes, you stupid--" and punching the stupid talking guy in the face again. He remembers that flash of guilt, that perfect surprise, that slow backwards topple.  
  
And he can't stop smiling, not when they're dragging him away, not when they're suspending him for a week, not even when, later, he finds he's a mass of bruises because the guy actually gave as good as he got. Micah doesn't remember that bit.  
  
But he remembers family.  
  
  
  
  
  
**5\. GO**  
  
"But then it turned out my dad had been shot deliberately by a Company stooge and they recovered his body and brought him back to life with blood from the immortal man, and did tests on him and stuff, but he escaped. And then when my mom went to rescue my kung-fu cousin from being burnt alive by this gang, he walked through the fire and pulled her out, but they couldn't tell me, because Monica and I were being closely watched by Bob, who headed the company. But then I was talking to my friend Hana, who is a disembodied consciousness inhabiting the Internet, and she managed to catch a security feed of them meeting with the guy who absorbs everyone else's powers and the Japanese man who can travel in time, and together they went and fought Bob and his electric daughter! And they were going to get caught, but Hana hacked the police database to get the number for the telepathic cop, and I called him, and he got Molly to find them, and then the flying man came and he carried me there, which was so cool! And I talked to all the computers until the security shut down and everybody escaped and took down the Company AND the immortal man, because he had come back and was evil, even though he saved dad. And then the creepy old lady tried to have us shot, but dad and the absorbing man phased everyone, and the cheerleader got shot instead, so we were all safe, because she just pushed the bullets out and healed. And that's how I spent my vacation," Micah finished.  
  
There was complete silence in the class.  
  
"And I got some new comics from a dead prophetic painter," he added, beaming.  
  
The look on the teachers face was totally worth the week of detention.


End file.
